Phuket

It’s been 5 days of total relaxation, just sitting on the beach, walking out into the shallow bay where the sea is like a tepid bath.
The hotel is superb considering the price we paid and we upgraded to a suite for a very small amount per day.

The food at the hotel is expensive and not that good but a 15 min walk down the beach and there were a dozen or so restaurants lining the shore where you can dine and watch the sun go down, the food was very cheap and excellent especially the deep fried crab pancakes and the ginger and mushroom chicken. The singer gave an excellent rendition of The Eagles ‘Despelado’.

It was quite amusing as it got darker to watch the waiters running around trying to find the correct table number for the order.
After dinner out on the room terrace all you could hear was flogs cloaking and chit-chats chattering.

Another flight today to Samui and 6 more days of R&R.

Chiang Mai

The weather in Chiang Mai is a bit cooler than in Bangkok especially at night, the humidity drops and it gets quite pleasant. The Night Bazaar downtown is huge it covers the same area as the Arndale Centre with stalls selling everything you might need. Getting down there was rather funny as Sheila has not quite mastered the art of getting in and out of a Tuk Tuk but hey life’s an adventure and by the time we left she was an expert. There are rows and rows of reclining chairs out in the square where you can get a Thai, neck or foot massage, we opted for the foot massage and spent the next hour relaxing as the sun went down. This was followed by a lobster dinner which was huge, we were just about to abandon hopes of getting more meat from it when the waitress dissected it and got nearly as much meat out of what we thought was finished. The only trip we decided to go on was the big whammy of ox carting, elephant riding and liver lafting. First there was a show to display the elephant’s talents, one of these was painting and if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I would not have believed it. The elephant painted a picture of an elephant holding some balloons with its trunk, the painting was inevitably being sold for a large sum of money. The elephant ride being the highlight of the day. It’s really strange riding atop an elephant, the motion is swaying and rolling and your muscles you don’t usually use are definitely exercised. The video below will give you an idea. Going down steps to the river was scary as you get thrown forward and it’s uncanny how the elephant picks its way through the rocks, bundles of bananas and sugar cane are eaten in one by the elephant on the ride. Back at the camp a baby elephant had been born at three o’clock that morning and it was still a little unsteady on its feet but by the time we had finished the ride it was wandering round the pen. The ox carting was a bone shaking experience and we were glad when it was over but the river rafting on bamboo rafts was very good. At one point the raft got stuck on a rock and at another a water snake was swimming along the bank. An opportunity was given to take over the poling at some point and a kid of about 9 on the raft in front tried his hand, unfortunately he somehow ended up falling in the water and a missed chance for me to earn £250 on You’ve been framed. All in all a really good day out and we were really tired by the end. We are off to Phuket today and 5 days of R&R.

Bangkok

On the way into Bangkok from the airport the first thing we noticed was the improved road system. It is 18 years since we last visited and the change is quite significant, it is now almost on a par with Singapore.

We stayed in the Siam Square area with large modern shopping malls, plenty of restaurants and the whole area was very busy. We decided to eat at the Outback Steakhouse as we needed a change from the Asian food we have eaten for the last two weeks and although expensive in relative terms, it was also good to eat juicy filet steaks.

It’s very hot here and a half day trip down the Chao Phraya river brought some nice cool breezes but the second trip of the city and temples was really hot.
The beer is also good with draught Singha and Changi, not expensive at £1 a pint. Whilst walking through the small shopping lanes it’s interesting to see that there are more men looking at the ladies clothing than women and a sign advertising ‘Miss Puke’ for thai massages.

There isn’t a great deal to write about Bangkok and wer’e off again to Chiang Mai.

Hanoi

Hanoi is just as bad as Saigon for traffic and in some cases even worse. The video below shows the chaos at most junctions. On the way from the airport we spotted what we thought were small orange trees being transported on the back of motorcycles, these are actually Kumquats that are used during the Chinese New Year like our Xmas trees and are decorated with red packets of money. On the first night we went to the Hanoi branch of the Hoa Vien and it was packed to the rafters with locals drinking beer, Sheila was a bit dubious about going in but the staff was very friendly and the food was fantastic. On the second day we walked round the Hoan Kiem Lake which has some kind of religious significance. While we were taking a rest people were coming to the lake shore and putting goldfish into the lake from all sorts of containers, plastic bags, pans and basins. This practice is in connection with the New Year celebrations although rather odd as there must have been over a hundred fish put in while we were there for 15 mins.

The local people are very resourceful in trying to make a buck, a guy with a plastic shopping bag full of shoe cleaning kit asked if I wanted a shoe shine and was disappointed when I pointed out that I had trainers on. All the streets are named after the products they sell, silk street, shoe street, bag street etc. etc.

The long awaited overnight trip to Halong Bay turned out to be the highlight of our trip so far. It took over three hours by road to get there but was well worth it as it lived up to all expectations. The boat was a 5 star Junk with everything on board you might need. The food was outstanding as was the service and the cabins had en suite facilities and air conditioning. A side trip was made to the floating fisherman’s village, the same as Rick Stein visited. After dinner you had the option of watching a movie or squid fishing and there is no doubt which option I took. The really strange thing was that they played I’m dreaming of a white Christmas as we left the boat at the end of the trip.

The last night was spent at the same hotel but in a different room which contained a toilet representative of the hotel’s name, Elegance, picture attached. We have really enjoyed our trip through Vietnam and will definitely return one day just as long it is still as cheap.

Hoi An

On the way from Danang airport to Hoi An there is a lot of construction work, building new resorts for Hyatt and Meridien so we thought that would carry on into Hoi An. We were wrong as Hoi An is relatively untouched by modern resorts and comprises mainly of boutique hotels. After consulting Tripadvisor we are staying at a French colonial style hotel and on the way to breakfast we are expecting Inspector Poirot to be sitting in the lounge area.

Old town Hoi An is very nice with lanes and alleys leading down to the river where there are rows of restaurants but on your way down there you have to pass countless shops vying for your trade, from tailors to shoe shops and of course the inevitable t-shirt and polo shop. There are very cheap restaurants where you sit on long tables like Wagamama, you can eat and drink all night for less than £5. Cars and buses are banned from the old town so there are strings of rickshaws lined up carrying tourists around.

One night on the way to the restaurant we decided to cut through the market and it was a bit busy, a cart pushed it’s way through and unfortunately Sheila could not manage to get out of the way and ended up sitting in a basket of vegetables and couldn’t get up, the real pity is that she had the camera so I couldn’t get a shot of it.

The food here is outstanding and really cheap. I tried some of the local ‘Bia Hoi’ which they call fresh beer, it’s an acquired taste but only 20p per glass, drinkable if there’s nothing else available.

On the way back we passed what we thought was an impromptu concert but turned out to be the Vietnamese version of bingo where they dish out papers with letters on them and start singing as a man gets a member of the audience to pick a stick out of a bamboo tube, this has a number of letters on and this is shouted out. If you get three of these on your paper then you win a Chinese Lantern. The video below should make it clearer although I was laughing quite a lot when taking it.

There are also a lot of strange signs and names above shop doors that mean something quite different in English.

An hour trip on the river was negotiated at £3 and on the way out we saw some Vietnamese fishing by the old method but came to the boat for payment after taking photos, all very well staged and worth the 33p tip.

I still can't get used to the money here like drawing 4 million Dong from the ATM or paying 300,000 for a night out, which is all of £11.

Hanoi tomorrow and a trip to Halong Bay.

Nha Trang

Nha Trang is a Vietnamese seaside town and it certainly lives up to its name. Large curving bay with an excellent sandy beach, plenty of restaurants and bars. I may just have found the best bar in Vietnam called the Louisiane Brewery, we went there on the first night and it did not disappoint. The beers were first class, especially the Pilsner which tasted like a hoppy Jaipur. There was supposed to be a Blues and Rock band on but the ‘rockiest’ number was Delilah sang with some Vietnamese inspired words which were ‘lost in translation’. It was just so funny that I captured a video on the camera and by the end the camera was shaking because I was laughing that much. A link to the video is below. There was also a large potted tree placed in the centre of the Gents toilet, so large you had to manoeuvre around it to get the stones, very bizarre. It was so good at this pub that we just had to go back for more on the Sunday lunch, I even took Sheila! Time is passing all too quickly and we’re off to Hoi An tomorrow, early flight so only a little drinking tonight.